Australia’s Digital Economy Set for Growth

Key Stats

The Australian Computer Society by Deloitte Access Economics sees digital technologies becoming a much more important part of the economy, contributing with $139 billion by 2020, a 76% increase from the $79 billion in 2014. This means digital economy is going from 5% of the country’s GDP in 2014 to 7% in 2020.

Where the Changes will Happen

According to the report, existing technologies will be used more frequently and will be seen in new industries and jobs, especially social media, mobile devices and cloud services, while new and emerging technologies will be seen applied in commercial environments. 3D printing and drones will be used in manufacturing and construction, and implementation costs should decrease over time.

Information and communications technology (ICT) as an economic sector will see a higher rate of job creation than the broader workforce – by 2020 ICT workforce should see 2% annual growth compared to the 1.4% in the general workforce.

Three quarters of the jobs created in ICT by 2020 will be in the ICT management and operations and ICT technical and professional groupings.

Women, however, are still underrepresented in the ICT workforce – only 28 per cent. Across all professional industries, women comprise 43 per cent of workers. Another gender inequality issue is the pay gap, as earnings are significantly lower for women in the ICT industries – about 20 per cent lower pay than men.